Robert Kraft explains why the Patriots' last preseason game was their 'hardest' moment of the season

The toughest part of the New England Patriots’ season was not trailing the Atlanta Falcons by 25 points in Super Bowl LI, at least not according to Robert Kraft.

The toughest moment didn’t even come during the playoffs or during Tom Brady’s four-game suspension for Deflategate.

As Kraft told Peter King of MMQB, the toughest moment of the season in fact came after the last preseason game in September, because it meant the team knew they would not see Brady for a month.

Kraft told King:

“It was after our last preseason game [Sept. 1 at the Giants]. We knew we couldn’t have any communication with Tom for four weeks, because of his suspension. Without question, that was our hardest moment of the year. Tom lives in the same neighbourhood as me. So we’re naturally going to see each other in the neighbourhood. But we couldn’t have any contact whatsoever, and we were going to do this absolutely by the book. We weren’t going to do anything that would allow anyone to think we were violating the league’s order. No meetings, no calls, no texts. Nothing. Our bond goes beyond football, and to go a month during the season without communication with Tom … That was really hard for me.”